Somewhere Only We Know
by screaming-poetically
Summary: Danny’s getting tired and he needs somewhere to begin. FlackDanny.


**Title:** Somewhere Only We Know  
**Summary:** Danny's getting tired and he needs somewhere to begin. FlackDanny.  
**Disclaimer:** The names of all characters contained herein are the property of Anthony Zuiker, Jerry Bruckheimer Television, CBS and Alliance Atlantis. No infringements of these copyrights are intended, and are used here without permission.  
**A/N:** This is probably the best slash story I've ever written.  
**Rating:** T

**Somewhere Only We Know**

"_Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?  
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on."  
-Keane_

Flack waved Danny over to the booth he sat in; the slightly younger man had asked him to meet him at Sullivan's after shift, something he was more than glad to do. It wasn't as if Flack had anything else planned, but inside he knew that he would've broken other arrangements for Danny. He was, after all, the best friend a man could have.

The way Danny had asked Flack to meet him, though, was rather disconcerting. Brow furrowed, eyes begging, posture uneasy—something more like Flack was to see on a suspect than on Danny Messer. There was something wrong, that was for sure. Maybe he got in trouble with Mac again, or there was some tension with Louie. Or, thought the detective, maybe he got the new girl pregnant.

Nah. That was an impossibilty, there was too much animosity there. If not animosity then tension, and not sexual at that. Danny resented the girl from Montana because she wasn't Aiden and to be honest so did Flack. And—

"Hey, man. Thanks for comin'."

Flack pushed the other beer towards Danny and shrugged.

"Not a problem, Dan. You seemed, I dunno, like you needed it. And you know I'm here for ya. So, what's going on?"

Danny played with his beer for a few moments, took a deep sip. A few times it seemed as if he was gonna say something but then he didn't. Flack wondered if it was just his imagination.That one thought seemed to appear often in Flack's mind: that maybe Danny was always trying to tell him something but he just couldn't find the words.

"Ya know, Flack," Danny said suddenly, "you're the only one I let call me Dan."

He said it as if it meant something, and when taken into consideration, it did; Flack considered Danny carefully and pushed his beer aside. He didn't really know what to think about this. Obviously Danny had something on his mind (and it had been there for awhile, most likely) that needed tending to.

"Never heard anyone else call ya Dan, so I guess it's true enough. Now, why'd you ask me down to Sullivan's?"

Danny leaned back in his seat and rubbed the back of his neck uneasily. Inwardly, Flack was thinking something along the lines of, oh god this has gottta be bad otherwise it wouldn't be so hard.

"Don. We been friends for a long time, yeah? An' I guess, this is sorta hard for me an' I been tryna tell ya for awhile now. I'm…well," Danny paused and watched Flack closely as he spoke his next words, "I'm gay."

"Gay," said Flack.

So that explains Danny's oral fixation.

"Look, man, you may think it's disgustin' an' wrong but—"

"Hey hey, ease up Messer. So that's what this was all about? You comin' out to me? It's not a big deal, Danny. I'm down with the rainbow."

Jesus Christ, did Flack really just say that? He can't believe it, and Danny can't either, but it was a kind of good disbelief (and relief, too) because Danny laughed. It felt good to see Danny laugh in a way that he hadn't in months, not since Tanglewood and Aiden and Louie. There's more, though, there has to be more. A catch to this happy new development of Danny being content and free from his secret.

A moment passed of Danny being quiet with a grin on his face, and then he looked up at Flack, eyes searching.

"There's something else, Flack."

But of course.

"What is it, Dan?"

Flack found himself pinned to his chair by Danny's gaze, desperate and resolute all at once. He'd never encountered something like it before, and certainly never on Danny. He'd seen it once before on Aiden, when she'd come to him not quite drunk and oh god _needing_ an answer from him. It was an answer he couldn't give—"Do you love me, Don? Please say yes."—and ever since then she hadn't been the same. But now it's different, it's Danny and that had to be something.

"My ma, she always used to say that a good home must be made, not bought. Never understood that until recently. I know it don't make much sense, but I do care for ya an' that's why I'm helpin' ya to understand. An' though it seems outta the blue, Don, I…"

Here Danny hesitated and Flack resisted the urge to reach out and touch his arm. Instead, Flack began to shred a napkin. Danny began to speak and Flack willed his hands to stop their nervous distraction.

"Don, what I'm meanin' to say is that I love you. An' not in the way I love Stella or Aiden, or even Mac. But I _love_ you. In a really unfortunate way that makes me hate you, love you."

Whatever Flack had been expecting, it was not this. Not Danny declaring his love, not a "hate you, love you" declaration. He wasn't expecting anything like this. This was horrible. And Flack guessed that it showed because Danny suddenly looked miserable and he looked away, towards the doorway. Towards escape, away from Flack.

"Sorry, man. I shouldn'ta told ya. It was a mistake."

He took a few bills out of his wallet and dropped them on the table before (nearly, almost) running away.

Flack watched him go, and he sat there in Sullivan's for nearly two hours more before leaving. He hailed a gypsy cab (something Danny would never have let him do) because they're cheaper and told the guy to head down to Brooklyn. He had someone to see.

Danny didn't answer his door right away. Flack figured that he was either wallowing or on the phone with Aiden, or maybe throwing up. Danny had a habit of throwing up when he got upset or nervous. Flack found it endearing in a strange sort of way, the same way he found Stella's habit of swearing in Greek endearing. Not that he'd ever _date_ Stella—her hair's far too curly and she's Mac's anyways. Whenever he's with Stella there's something in Mac's eyes he can't place so he doesn't even try.

When Danny finally answered the door he only opened it halfway, and then looked warily at Flack. He could tell that Danny didn't really want to believe that he was here, especially after the apparent disaster of "Hey Flack I'm gay and by the way I love you" down at Sullivan's earlier that evening. Hell, Flack didn't want to believe he was here. This was way too fruity for him, going to Danny in the late hours of the night (nearly early hours of the morning) to, well…

"Dan, I…I never said no."

He looked away, looked back. Looked back to Danny who had opened the door wider and stood looking at Flack with even more confusion in his eyes than before.

"Whattya mean?"

"When you told me…that you love me. I never said no."

Danny stepped out of his apartment and closer to Flack, who swore softly—this wasn't what he'd intended. He had never intended on any of this really; not on falling for Danny (is that what this feeling is?) and not on ruining Aiden for other men (that's certainly what he did.) She can't even look at him now and all Danny can do _is_ look at him, and this is way too complicated and _when_ did Flack pull Danny to him, when did Flack start nuzzling Danny's neck?

If Flack wasn't sure of his sexuality before this moment, he was sure when Danny's mouth covered his and coaxed his lips apart. Danny kept kissing him, deepening the kisses until Flack could feel himself shuddering with desire. He was really into it now, muttering hot phrases against Danny's skin and pushing him backward into the apartment and closing the door behind them.

"Danny—"

"No," whispered Danny, "everyone else calls me that. Dan is yours."

Flack's hands slid up Danny's arms and over his shoulders, his fingers threading through Danny's hair. He licked his lips, which were damp and swollen from Danny's kisses, and pressed himself closer to the CSI.

"Tonight…I just want to be here, you know, Dan? This is new to me."

Danny brushed a kiss to the line of Flack's jaw and murmured a soft acquiescence, leading Flack to the bedroom. By 3:45 in the morning Danny is asleep and Flack lies awake, still reeling from the night's events. It all seems so sudden, really; when Aiden finds out (because surely she'll be the first to know) that's what she'll say. But what Flack realized, in the early hours of the morning while lying in Danny's bed, is that it all _wasn't_ so sudden.

Everything he'd ever done had been leading him to this one moment.

Everyone he'd ever met had been leading him to Danny.

Everywhere he'd ever been had been leading him to this place, a place from which Danny and himself could head off in their own direction.

_Somewhere only we know._


End file.
